Calls for a Doubling of the Scottish Child Payment in the 2021 Programme for Government

As an amendment to motion S6M-00908 in the name of Jeremy Balfour (Calls for a Doubling of the Scottish Child Payment in the 2021 Programme for Government), leave out from "; shares the view" to end and insert "or as soon as practicably possible; shares the view expressed by the coalition that doubling the payment now would 'signal that ending child poverty will be a defining priority for this Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament'; understands that all five of the main political parties committed to the move ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections; considers that the Scottish Government has yet to set a timescale for the doubling of the payment, stating only that it will take place by the end of the current parliamentary session in 2026, and urges the Scottish Government to act on this clear and urgent call from a wide cross-section of Scottish society; believes the Scottish Child Payment to be a progressive measure introduced by the SNP administration; believes that the benefit is considered ‘game-changing’ by anti-poverty campaigners and is the only one of its kind in the UK; notes the Scottish Government’s commitment to significantly increase the payment following its roll-out to under-16s; recognises what it sees as the gravity of the warning by Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner and many others that the UK Government’s decision to scrap the £20 universal credit uplift will neutralise the positive impacts of the Scottish Child Payment; expresses concern at reports that half a million people, including 200,000 children across the UK, will be plunged into poverty by the cut, and supports the letter from the cross-party conveners of relevant committees in the Scottish, Welsh and UK parliaments and the Northern Ireland Assembly urging the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to make permanent the universal credit uplift and extend it to legacy benefits that are disproportionately claimed by disabled people."